There is a time.

It’s a beautiful day, this particular Monday. Why, you ask? It’s because this daughter of the Most High and evidence of His undeserved grace was gifted to mother earth on this day some twenty-something years ago, yay!

There’s just something about ending an old cycle and starting a new, it gives you the illusion that you have learnt a world of lessons, renewed zeal to do better at life in general and the determination to not repeat past mistakes again if you can help it. So raise your glass, if you have one, to looking forward to what life has to offer and letting go of the past.

Birthdays meant next to nothing in our first and second year of life, when we became conscious of ourselves as individual entities, they were met with so much excitement, ‘I can’t wait to be older’ most of us thought, being an adult looks kinda cool when you’re on the outside looking in. This continues until sweet sweet 16, at what point you think ‘yay I have arrived’ ,of course you have, you’re now in University or well on your way to getting there, with plenty of mom and dad’s money and plenty of their absence too. ‘This adulting thing is the bomb mahn’, so you breeze through life, doing what you want, having no one to answer to, good times!

17 yay birthday !!!

18 yay birthday !!

19 yay birthday !

20 yay… Birthday

At 21, the bottom falls off from under you as the weight of responsibility gradually settles itself on your shoulders. At this point, your dreams start to look a little more lofty, tomorrow’s a little more uncertain, and you start to get a little overwhelmed, subconsciously you start to see that maybe this adulting thing isn’t something you want to rush into, so you start to wish time wouldn’t hurry you on to meet your fate, whatever it is.

At this point, what makes birthdays joyous is not the fact that you’re growing older, rather, it is the certainty of who you are, the beauty of the journey you’ve only just begun, the improvements you’ve made, the thriving relationships you’ve kept growing that starts to make all the difference.

So though it is with great reluctance, but with a better perspective of what my birthday means, I wish myself Akinro Oluwatosin Gloria a happy birthday.

You’re a 10 girl, whenever you doubt that, just look at where you’re coming from, where you are now and where you’re going to.